Jesika arose at 5:00 the next morning and got dressed, braiding her hair down the middle. She then grabbed her sword and bow and arrows. She ate her breakfast quickly, then started to head out of the cave, only to be stopped by Rowan calling for her.

“Your Majesty,” he said.

Jesika paused, turning, one brow raised expectantly. Darryn and Aquila stood with him.

“This better not be another last minute try at making me change my mind, because it won’t work. I thought I made that clear,” she said sternly.

Rowan shook his head. “We refuse to let you do this alone. So, we’re going with you. We’re going to fight alongside you.”

Kronos, Rocky and Frankie came to stand behind them also, as if also giving their allegiance. She crossed her arms, studying them, now noticing how they had also prepared for battle.

“We can win, you know. We have a griffin, an amarok and a phoenix. And a heck of a lot of fighting skills,” she encouraged.

Rowan shrugged, shaking his head. “Or we die trying, Your Majesty.”

Her hopeful expression dimmed yet again. “If that’s the way you want to look at it, fine. Let’s go,” she said. With that, she turned, heading out. The three followed with their beasts behind them.

***

Nerves were high between the four as they climbed up towards the dragon’s cave where she overlooked the mountains. She let out a bellow that echoed loudly across the mountains, as if she knew they were right around the corner.

They stopped a few feet away, Jesika turning to the group.

“Alright, are we ready? We remember the plan, right?” They nodded, but Jesika went over it again anyways. “Rowan, you fly by on your griffin and attack the dragon to distract her attention away so that Darryn and I can fire the poison arrows at her. Aquila, you stay away from danger with Frankie in case one of us need some fire protection. Now let’s kill a dragon!” She roared and turned, running forward. The group followed.

Rowan swiftly mounted Kronos, flying into the cave and diving to attack Aethelinda’s head where she rested in the cave. The dragon rumbled her protest, turning on Rowan and Kronos. The pair deftly dodged the dragon’s attacks, flying in and out, left and right. Jesika ran forward to shoot, followed closely by Darryn. She stopped at the entrance of the cave and readied her bow, then looked up at the dragon to aim.

As she aimed, she felt herself get distracted as reality set in. This was the beast that had killed her parents. This huge, scaly, larger than life creature was the reason she now had no one to look up to, no close family to turn to. Tears filled her eyes as her hands trembled. She could hear her name being screamed but her mind was now too fogged to care. She felt like flames were creeping up on her, devouring her whole. She saw the burning castle, the people screaming and crying, her ears were overwhelmed with the noise of her own pounding heartbeat. As she got wrapped up in the past, the dragon turned on her, opening her mouth and breathing a flaming inferno straight at her.

Jesika came to her senses, falling back away from the flames and holding up her arms to shield her face. She screamed sharply in painful agony as the flames stung her legs, her arms, any bit of skin it could. Suddenly, Frankie jumped in front of her, pinning her to the ground, covering her, protecting her from the flames. Her tears dried up in the intense heat. Rowan yelled loudly at Jesika’s affliction, sweeping in to attack the dragon yet again on Kronos.

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As Kronos tore at her head, Rowan jumped off, stabbing the dragon repeatedly with his sword. The dragon snarled, shaking them off, throwing them across the cave easily. During this time, Darryn grabbed Jesika from underneath Frankie, throwing her up on Rocky and riding out.

Jesika fought against him, trying to get off the wolf to run back in, but Darryn clung tightly to her. She screamed and wept, ignoring the searing pain on her flesh, still wanting to fight. Darryn sighed, shaking his head, then left with no choice, he head-bumped her hard enough to knock her out so she would stop fighting.

Aquila rode on Frankie, going to help Rowan up from where he laid unconscious in the cave. Kronos lay next to him, barely clinging to consciousness himself. She threw Rowan onto Frankie, with much difficulty, then helped Kronos up so that he could weakly fly back to camp.

Aquila mounted Frankie, flying towards camp herself. As she flew, she caught sight of Darryn on Rocky, running down the mountains to camp. Soon they all met back in the cave.

Aquila dismounted Frankie and Darryn did the same with Rocky. He came to her side, helping her lower Rowan and move him to lay on the cave ground. They then moved to lower Jesika, settling her a few feet from Rowan. Kronos lay against the wall, his breathing haggard. Aquila went to him, pouring water from her canteen into his mouth. Darryn sat across from Rowan and Jesika, breathing heavily. He drank some water himself, then poured the rest over Jesika’s body. He then reached into his bag, pulling out anti-infection cream and he began to cover her in it, any spot that had the brownish-red sores. Which was almost everywhere. He soon ran out of cream, turning to look at Aquila. She caught on quickly, throwing a bottle from her own bag.

He continued to cover her in the cream, tears filling his eyes. Once he finally finished, he sunk back, overcome by sadness as he yelled out in emotional pain, letting the tears fall in a rush. Aquila came to his side, resting her head on his shoulder, crying with him.

***

The next morning, Rowan awoke, the first thing he felt being his aching body. He groaned deeply at the pain, sinking back into the ground. He let himself catch his bearings, getting control of his breathing. Aquila was quickly at his side, kneeling next to him.

“Stay down, Rowan. Let your body rest.”

He huffed in frustration, looking to his right to see Jesika. At the sight of her burnt skin, he winced.

“My God...” he muttered quietly.

“Our thoughts exactly,” Darryn grumbled from nearby.

Rowan’s eyes found him sitting next to Aquila, looking at Jesika. “We... have... to go back home,” Rowan said weakly, struggling to speak a complete sentence through the pain.

Darryn nodded, pain filling his own eyes. “But how are supposed to do that when you and Jesika can’t even sit up? For heavensakes, she is still unconscious!” Darryn said, his voice uncontrollably getting louder. Aquila gently laid her hand on his arm, reminding him to calm down. He sighed heavily, lowering his head into his hands. “If she had just listened to me,” he rasped as more tears fell.

Aquila glared at him. “Stop Darryn. Don’t you dare blame her for this.”

He turned on her, yelling once again: “Who else is to blame, Aqui!!??”

Aquila shrunk away from him, her expression becoming hurt.

Rowan grumbled to get their attention. “We can still go home, geniuses. Jesika will just ride on Rocky with you and I will ride—” Rowan paused, his mind going to Kronos. He started to rise up, only to groan in pain yet again, falling back. He searched around frantically for Kronos and smiled weakly when he caught sight of him watching him from a corner. Kronos slowly came towards him, nudging his head lovingly. Rowan pet his head, resting his own head against him. “Is Kronos alright? I assume he flew back, right?” he asked, not looking away from Kronos as he continued to stroke him.

Aquila nodded, though she knew he wasn’t looking. “Yeah, he flew back. But not without great effort. I don’t think it’d be very smart to make him carry you and fly back.”

Rowan glanced at her. “Then who am I riding on?”

She shrugged. “You’ll just ride with me on Frankie.”

He grunted in understanding, focusing his attention yet again on Kronos. Jesika finally began to stir, immediately drawing their attention. Darryn came to her side and started to reach for her hand, but stopped upon looking at it, remembering her sores.

“Jes?! Are you alright?!” he asked softly.

Her eyes slowly fluttered open as she looked up at him. “Did... we... win?” she rasped.

Darryn’s head fell, and his heart sank. “No, Jes. We didn’t.”

Her aching scream of defeat filled the cave and echoed off the walls, hoarse and broken.